


Words

by lookingforthestars



Category: Scorpion (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-15
Updated: 2016-02-19
Packaged: 2018-05-20 22:32:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6027802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lookingforthestars/pseuds/lookingforthestars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Paige's admission surprises everyone, and forces Walter to make a choice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Surprise

"He said _what_?"

Toby cleared his throat and shrugged. "Exactly what I expected. Our relationship will jeopardize the team, it's statistically unlikely to work out, we're being selfish by pursuing it instead of staying friends, etc."

"That little…" Happy grumbled before glancing up at the shrink. "You're not…?"

"Not a chance," he insisted with a smile, reaching over to the mechanic and linking his fingers with hers. Toby felt her body relax as she let out a barely perceptible sigh of relief. "We've come way too far to give up just because Walter is jealous."

Happy frowned, and Toby realized that he found the expression quite adorable when it wasn't directed at him. "You think this is about jealousy?"

He squeezed her hand. "I do. We both know how long he's been obsessed with Paige, but he can't stop getting in his own way. He's jealous that you and I have found a way to make things work…or that we're trying to, at least."

"Hm." Happy fell silent, furrowing her brow as she lost herself in thought. Toby inched closer to her and placed his other hand over hers, rubbing circles over her knuckles until she spoke again. "What if…"

"Yeah?"

"Maybe we could…I don't know…" She scrunched her face. "Move things along for him, somehow?"

"You mean, break the standoff between him and Paige?" She nodded, and Toby broke into a wide grin. "And we could get him off our backs. Happy, you're a genius."

"Well, duh." The tiny mechanic leaned over, bumping her shoulder against the psychologist's. "Meddling is a dangerous game, Doc. Are you sure we should do this?"

"I don't have a better idea."

Happy let out a prolonged sigh and hopped off the desk. "I'll get Paige. Tell the boss to meet us upstairs in ten."

* * *

"Hello, Paige," Toby said cheerfully as the liaison reached the top of the stairs and stepped into the loft. Her eyes darted between him and the woman next to him as she took a hesitant step forward.

"This feels like a trap," Paige announced suspiciously.

"You're paranoid," he commented, pointing his finger in her direction. "Have you ever seen anyone about that?"

She rolled her eyes, taking another step and crossing her arms in front of her chest. "What do you want? If it's about the trampoline, I already told you that you'll have to pay for it yourself."

"I did, and it's coming in six days. Although I still maintain that—." Happy cleared her throat, causing Toby to snap back to attention. "Not what we brought you here for. Actually…" Paige narrowed her eyes as Toby practically sang the word. "We wanted to check in with you. See how things were going."

Paige stared blankly at the couple before shaking her head. Whatever their game was, she'd learned not to waste time trying to figure it out. "I'm fine. Thank you for your concern, I guess."

"It's just that, um…" Happy started, glancing at Toby for confirmation and receiving an encouraging nod. "This whole Walter dating thing is pretty crazy, and if I was you, I wouldn't be okay with it."

Her slightly widened eyes were the only indication that she was affected by Happy's words. Toby noticed the way she subconsciously leaned away from them; a sure signal of discomfort, but that was a good sign if they were going to break through her denial. "Walter is an adult. However he chooses to work on his social skills is his decision," she said evenly. "It really doesn't concern me."

"Sure it does," Toby argued, and Happy nodded helpfully. "In all the years I've known him, I have never seen Walter act around anyone the way he acts around you. And it's pretty clear that you're in just as deep as he is."

The mechanic ignored Paige's warning glare and added, "We saw you two at Christmas. Whatever 'agreement' you guys had before clearly wasn't holding up."

"It doesn't seem like you're fighting," the psychologist continued, barreling full steam ahead now. "And you can't really be okay with this. So why haven't you told him?"

Paige pressed her lips together, the dark flash in her eyes betraying her growing frustration. "Why are you pressing this?" she asked through gritted teeth.

Toby motioned for Happy to take the lead. "We think you guys should be together," the mechanic stated clearly, stretching herself up to her full height even though it was still a good head shorter than Paige—especially Paige in heels. "Maybe if you told Walter how you felt, he'll realize that he doesn't need to meet these other women…"

The liaison's fingers curled under as she clenched her fists, an action that didn't go unnoticed by the geniuses. "You're both crazy, and I'm leaving."

She turned on her heel and headed for the door, but Toby blocked her exit. "Paige…"

"Enough!" she snapped, causing Toby and Happy to jump. Incurring Paige's wrath was never pleasant, but Toby had assured the mechanic that they needed to bring her genuine emotions to the surface for their plan to work. "Walter knows how I feel and has apparently decided that it's not what he needs right now. That's the end of my involvement and yours."

"So you're just going to give up on him?" Toby said to egg her on, resuming his place next to Happy. "Because I don't buy this as innocent workplace flirtation. I think that you—."

"That I what, Toby? That I love him? That's what you think, isn't it?" Paige threw up her hands. "Hell, I don't know! Maybe that's true. And guess what? It doesn't really change anything."

Toby's jaw dropped at her confession, sinking even further when he looked over her shoulder and spotted Walter, frozen on the stairs. He'd been so caught up in the game that he'd forgotten all about the purpose of their plan—and he certainly wasn't expecting an outburst like that from the liaison when he invited Walter to the loft under the guise of helping with a project. "Paige…" Toby muttered as a warning.

"No, we're going to settle this now," she barked, gripping the edge of the table so hard they thought she might break it. "I cannot force Walter to be ready for or want any kind of relationship with me, and I respect his decisions. So stay out of my business and just let it go, okay?"

Unnerved by the sudden silence, Paige followed the couple's gaze behind her and blanched when she saw the genius. Their eyes locked, but the shock on his face was too much for her and she turned her full anger back onto Happy and Toby.

"Did you get what you wanted?" she hissed, pushing herself off from the table and storming away from them. Walter murmured her name quietly when she approached the door, but the liaison held up her hand. "Don't," she said in a clipped voice as she pushed past him, and Walter did something he swore he would never do again after the night he drove off the cliff.

He let her leave.

* * *

"I'm sorry."

Walter flicked his eyes up. It was rare for Happy to offer apologies, and even rarer to hear one that didn't sound like sarcasm. He'd hear her and Toby bickering in the loft for a few minutes before the garage fell deeply, almost eerily quiet. Walter himself had retired to the dingy room in the back of the garage where they interrogated suspects or hid items of questionable legality from Cooper, depending on the situation.

"I'm sorry," she said again, sliding into the seat across the table from Walter. "We didn't mean for it to go so far. We just…honestly, it doesn't matter. It was stupid."

Walter tapped his fingers absentmindedly on the wood, soaking in each word. "Where's Toby?"

"I figured the doc would only cause more damage, so I sent him home." The mechanic clasped her hands and leaned forward, offering him a sympathetic smile. "We're the only ones left. Robot to robot."

Walter rarely faced problems he felt incapable of solving, but he had the strangest sensation that all of his knowledge was useless here. There were emotions…questions…doubts coming at him from all corners, and he struggled to separate them, analyze them, control them. The genius stared at the wall in front of him for a long time before he said, "That was…unexpected."

"I certainly did not see it coming," she agreed, gazing solemnly down at her grease-stained nails. "What's going on in your brain, Walt?"

"I can't tell," he admitted, and Happy nodded in understanding. They were the most similar members of the team: arrogant, distrustful, emotionless. But there was more to them under the surface, and they could see the changes in each other, even when no one else did. "Paige was upset. Whether she was angry at you or at me, though…I don't know."

Happy shrugged. "Both, probably."

"I can't…rectify the situation if I don't know why she's upset with me," Walter mumbled before clearing his throat and adding, "This type of dissension is crippling for the team."

The mechanic smirked. His last concern right now was the team's welfare, but he couldn't admit that it killed him when he and Paige fought.

"She's embarrassed, Walter." Happy shifted in her seat. Things were about to get real between two of the most closed-off people on earth, but this was her mistake to fix. "Toby and I pushed her into admitting something that she clearly wasn't ready to tell you on her own. Our plan was only to show you that Paige wasn't happy about you dating, but…it got a little out of hand."

"My dates were not…wholly successful," he noted, creasing his eyebrow. "But they were necessary, and Paige appeared to be supportive of the experiment."

"But she wasn't," Happy explained bluntly. Paige had been too afraid to spell things out for him, so it was clearly up to the mechanic to hammer the truth into his thick skull. "I would have made Toby bleed if he went on a date with another woman, even when we weren't together. You know why? Because we were getting there, just like you and Paige were getting there, and you confused her and broke her trust by running around on her. Maybe to you it didn't mean anything, but it hurt her, and I think that deep down you knew it would and you sabotaged yourself because things were getting too intense."

Walter blinked, his face devoid of expression, but she knew she'd hit a nerve. Happy and Toby were the poster children for self-sabotage; they could spot it a mile away in anyone except themselves.

She allowed him a moment to process her accusation, and when it appeared that the initial shock had faded, she clasped her hands and leaned forward. "Would it be the worst thing if Paige did love you?"

"No," he mumbled instinctively before straightening up and running his rough hands through his hair. "Yes. We agreed to stay friends for the sake of the team—."

"Cut the team crap, Walter," Happy demanded, narrowing her eyes at him. "We survived your blood feud with Cabe and the tornado of unmitigated crazy that was Mark Collins. There's literally no fight you and Paige could have that would ruin the team after all that."

Walter appeared to soften for a second, but his defenses reappeared as quickly as they had slipped. "Fine. But Ralph—."

"Stop, Walt, you're exhausting." She waved her hands in front of her. "You care about the effect it would have on other people, I get that. But you're convinced that you'll mess up and lose Paige, and you'd rather stay in limbo your entire life than have her slip through your fingers. That's why you went on those dates. You wanted to prove what you've always believed: that sooner or later, you're going to ruin everything."

The genius scratched the side of his face, avoiding her expectant gaze. "It's too big of a risk."

"You've taken bigger."

"Risk is relative," he explained after a long pause. "If I disarm a bomb or save a hostage, the greater good is served, even if I don't make it out. But if I take a personal risk and fail…what's the point then?"

"The point is that you live, Walt. Life is scary. Deal with it."

She was pushing him to his limits, and she could start to see the strain. Happy was hardly in comfortable territory herself—Toby knew better than to pressure her into emotional discussions like this—but if it would make her life easier in the long run, she was willing to soldier through it.

"I don't think I could say it back to her," Walter admitted, running his hands over his legs as if he wasn't quite sure what else to do with them. "That is, if she meant it, which I'm not convinced that she did. I've tried to…learn, but it's still a foreign concept."

Finally, they were getting somewhere. Happy, feeling a bit restless in her seat, untangled her legs from around the table and stood up, leaning her back against the wall. "Oh, she meant it. And you don't need to understand it. The rest of us do."

"Your logic is confusing."

"Shut up and listen, Walt." Happy pressed further into the cold brick and crossed her feet. Part of her regretted sending the shrink away; confrontations like this were what he lived for, but she'd spent enough time around him to pick up a trick or two. "I can't tell you how you feel, but I can tell you how you act. And if the lengths to which you'll go for Paige and the things you do to make her happy are any indication of how you feel, then it's a pretty safe bet that you love her."

Happy smiled inwardly, imagining the prideful expression the psychologist would have if he could hear her. It was fully possible that he did; the two of them had planted listening devices all over the loft.

"Do you love Toby?"

She made a strangled choking sound, covering it with an exaggerated cough. It was a fair question, she guessed, but that didn't mean she'd been prepared for it. _None of your business,_ she thought, but there was no one else around, and if she was serious about helping Walter, she was going to have to commit sometime.

"I will go full 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' on you if you repeat this." The genius stared at her with no hint of recognition, and Happy rolled her eyes. "Seriously? It's in the title. Massacre. Chainsaw. Please don't make me explain my threats to you."

Walter nodded.

"Honestly, I don't know," she conceded after she'd collected her thoughts. "I suspect that I will one day, if I'm not there already."

"I thought you said that you knew?"

The mechanic shrugged, pushing her hands deeper into the pockets of her gray hoodie. "It's a hard thing to accept when you've spent your whole life fighting against it." She bit her lip, cracking a smile at the sudden realization of how far cold, mechanical Happy had fallen. "The doc makes me crazy, but I'd be lying if I said he doesn't make life easier. I can't imagine dealing with…all the crap we deal with, next to anyone but him. You know what the funniest thing is?"

The genius didn't respond, but she sensed his undivided attention.

"I don't think he cares if I say it back. Ever. I mean, I'm sure he'd appreciate hearing it, but…" Happy shot him a pointed look, lifting her eyebrow challengingly. "Maybe the word is not the most important thing, Walter. Maybe people like us just have to show it."


	2. Risk

Paige nearly jumped out of her skin when a knock inevitably came on her door. It was late and most of the lights in her apartment were off, Ralph was asleep…she could choose not to answer. She wasn't ready to face him. What would she say? Would he decide that he couldn't work with her anymore? Maybe she'd been around the geniuses too long, but she wanted to decide how she would handle any of Walter's possible reactions before she actually came face-to-face with them.

The visitor tried again, and Paige quickly realized that it wasn't Walter's methodical, evenly-spaced knock. She stood up and reached for the door, placing her ear against it. "Who is it?" she asked quietly to keep from waking up her son.

"Not the person you're avoiding, so let me in," Toby announced from the other side. Paige breathed a sigh of relief and twisted the doorknob to reveal the shrink, who looked at her guiltily. "Hi. I suck."

The liaison debated telling him to leave, but she could only handle tension with one member of the team at a time, and it was a great deal easier to face Toby right now than Walter. "Come on. Let's go outside."

She shut the door gingerly behind her and led Toby down the stairs and into the courtyard, falling into step with him on a trail behind her building that wound around the pond. They were silent for a few moments before Toby spoke up again.

"I'm sorry." He glanced over to gauge her reaction, but she kept her eyes straight ahead. "Happy and I never meant to make things worse. We just wanted to…I don't know, help you and Walter be honest about your feelings."

"Why?"

"Because you're our friends and we want you to be happy." Paige raised her eyebrow, earning a reluctant sigh from Toby. "Fine, and also because Walter's a pain in the ass about workplace fraternization and we figured he'd have to loosen up if you were together."

She didn't respond immediately, and Toby worried that she might lambast him for manipulating her personal life for his own gain. To his surprise, though, a ghost of a smile appeared on her face. "He is a pain in the ass," she agreed before breaking into laughter, which Toby couldn't help but share.

When they caught their breath, he shook his head and walked backward on the trail, facing her. "I really am sorry, Paige."

"I know." She reached one hand up and halfheartedly smacked his shoulder. "Could you warn me next time, at least?"

"Done."

Paige came to a gradual stop near the pond, staring out at the reflection of the moonlight on the water. Toby stood with her patiently, sensing that she needed the ear of a psychiatrist, or a friend, or maybe both.

"I'm sorry that I bit your head off," the liaison offered. "Not as sorry as you should be, but still, it wasn't fair. I just…" She lifted her eyes to take in the stars, blinking as they gradually came into view. "When Walter said he wanted to meet new people, I thought he'd round up a few more guys like Ray and start a poker night or something. But then he was dating other women and I felt like…like we'd been seeing things completely differently, and what I thought was happening between us wasn't happening at all. I felt dumb."

"You're not dumb," Toby said evenly. "Walter is dumb. I'm dumb. But you're not."

Paige inhaled and let out a deep breath. "I didn't say anything because I knew it would strain our relationship as colleagues and as friends. His biggest fear is that emotional involvement would hurt the team, and he's right."

"Trust me, that's not his biggest fear," the shrink scoffed, but she didn't ask for an elaboration, so he dropped it.

"How do you deal with it? With Happy?" Paige tilted her head to look at him. "The distance, the trust issues, the way they're next to you one moment and then gone the next…" She snapped her fingers to illustrate. "Sometimes I wonder if it's a losing battle."

Toby shrugged, rocking back on his heels as he thought. "Happy wouldn't be Happy without all of her problems. That's who I fell for and that's who I have to accept. But I'd rather be with her on a bad day than anyone else on a good day, because she's worth it." He hesitated before dropping his hand to Paige's shoulder, giving it a comforting squeeze. "Being in love with a genius is just different. Everything is more intense—the good stuff, too. Sometimes it requires an…unusual perspective."

She grasped his hand on her shoulder, shooting the psychologist a sad smile. "I'm not ready for it," Paige admitted as he released her. "Whatever's about to happen. I'm not ready for everything to go to hell, Toby."

"Hey, it won't," he assured her. Relieved as he was that Paige had forgiven him, he could see the doubt in her eyes now and kicked himself for treating her so selfishly. Whatever the fallout was from this, he had to make sure that he and Happy would be there for her. "Don't assume the worst, Paige. Just talk to Walter. He might surprise you."

* * *

_That I love him? That's what you think, isn't it?_

_Maybe that's true._

Those words had run through Walter's mind in hundreds of variations since the previous evening. No matter how much he lectured himself that it would more efficient to get a good night's sleep and view the situation with fresh eyes in the morning, nothing seemed capable of stopping them.

_Maybe that's true._

He'd never imagined her sounding so upset when she said it. Walter knew he had pushed her away, over and over again, even when what he wanted most was to get closer to her. And despite his intentions, that had clearly taken its toll. She wasn't happy about her feelings for him. She sounded tired. Defeated.

His IQ, the business, the lives he saved—it didn't feel like much when he kept hurting the people he cared about.

Of course he cared about Paige. He cared about what happened to her. He cared that she was safe, and happy. He wanted her and Ralph in his life and had crumbled at the prospect of losing them. But if there was a word for that, it eluded him.

There were a handful of people Walter could admit that he'd loved, in the best way that he understood love. Cabe, the man who'd accepted him as a son, and continued to despite their baggage. Ralph, the child who turned his life upside down and gave him a renewed purpose. Megan, the sister who understood him, showed him kindness, believed in him until her last moment. There were bits and pieces of what he felt for them in his relationship with Paige: his respect for Cabe, his protectiveness toward Ralph, his complete trust in Megan. And then there was something else, something he wasn't sure how to identify, and that was the part he wondered about now.

"Walter?" His eyes snapped to the door as an uncertain voice broke his train of thought. Paige stumbled back a bit, caught off guard by his sudden reaction. "Sorry. You're busy."

She turned abruptly to leave, but Walter pulled himself together and called out her name, stopping her. "It's okay," he insisted as he stood up from his chair. "We, uh, have some things to talk about."

"Yes." Paige took a tentative step inside the loft, folding her arms over her chest and training her eyes studiously on anything that wasn't him. "I got emotional yesterday. I was…upset, and I wasn't thinking clearly. I didn't mean to say that."

"Oh." Walter cleared his throat, bracing himself to ask a question he had no doubt he would regret later. "So you didn't mean it?"

He shuffled uncomfortably, surprised by the twinge of disappointment that had wormed into his voice. Was he afraid she would say no? And if he was, what did that say about him? Paige considered the question for a moment, picking nervously at her fingernails while Walter realized he was holding his breath.

"I didn't mean to say it," she repeated simply, and the genius knew that there was meaning between the lines, even if he couldn't decipher it immediately. Paige always expressed herself clearly; it wasn't an issue of semantics. She had purposefully avoided saying no.

Walter couldn't belief the wave of relief that washed over him.

"Paige…" he started quietly, not entirely sure where to go from there, but he was interrupted by the slamming of the door downstairs.

"We've got a case!" Cabe shouted, his voice echoing off the metal surfaces in the garage. "I need you all, now!"

* * *

_Backup frequency._

Paige stared at the text, ignoring the idle chatter over her comm. Then, almost as an afterthought:

_Please._

She sighed and glanced at the footage on the monitor to confirm that the team was okay before switching to the alternate frequency that they typically only used in cases of emergency. The liaison couldn't be sure what Walter needed it for now, but after two years of missions with Scorpion, she'd learned to roll with whatever random requests they made.

"Are you okay?" she asked, fiddling with the device to make it fit more comfortably in her ear. "Why didn't you just call me?"

"My reception here is inadequate," Walter explained, tapping on the ridged surface to emphasize his point. That may have been a bit of an understatement. While Paige was overseeing operations at the garage and the rest of the team was conducting surveillance in the hotel above him, Walter was stuck waiting in a tunnel for the signal to hack the power lines and take control of the building's systems.

"Shouldn't we be on with the rest of the team?"

Walter shrugged. "Sylvester needs ten minutes to decrypt the codes, Toby's distracting the staff, and Happy still hasn't gotten into the safe. We have at least five minutes before anyone needs us."

"Five minutes to…?" Paige asked cautiously, still lost about the reason for their covert maneuvering.

"To talk." The genius brushed specks of dust off his pants, to keep his hands busy if nothing else. "We shouldn't…we can't pretend like nothing happened. We need to resolve it."

Paige wasn't sure what to make of Walter's tone, blunt and matter-of-fact as ever. It probably meant he saw her feelings as a problem that needed to be handled, and she wasn't sure if she could endure that. There was also a chance, however, that his emotional investment was simply overwhelming him, and he needed to process it the only way he knew how. But that was more than she was comfortable hoping for, so Paige pushed it aside. "Okay."

"Happy told me everything," Walter started, and she could tell from the small variations in his breathing that he was pacing inside the tunnel. "What they said to you. I'm sorry that they cornered you like that."

The liaison dropped her head into her palm, pinching the bridge of her nose. "They meant well. The whole thing just…snowballed."

"Yeah." There was an excruciatingly long pause, and Paige resisted the impulse of every nerve in her body to say that they should move on and forget about it. That was always her tendency—to gloss over uncomfortable territory between her and Walter, and regret it later when she started to wonder what he might say if only she gave him the chance. "I wish you had told me, Paige."

Her head shot up.

"About the dating. I didn't mean to hurt you. I apologize if I did." Walter, suddenly feeling strangely unsteady on his legs, slid down against the tunnel wall and pulled his knees up to his chest, deliberately avoiding any contemplation on the filthiness of the ground below him. "I think that Happy may have been right. I was so sure that I would let you down, I ruined things before I _really_ had the chance to ruin things."

Paige heartbeat flooded her ears. She was grateful when Walter continued without expecting a reply; for once, she thought she might be speechless.

"There's something else," the genius explained in a level voice, tracing the subtle lines on his clothes with his fingers. He wasn't sure how to understand Paige's silence, but he was running out of time to say what he needed to say, so he blurted out, "Happy explained to me that, uh, there's a high probability that…what I feel for you is, in fact, love."

Anyone outside of Scorpion might have found that statement absurd, but it sounded just about right to Paige. Unable to muster a more appropriate response, she let out a sharp laugh and said, "Yeah?"

Walter could picture the expression on her face clearly, as if she was standing right in front of him, and it made him chuckle. "Apparently it's, uh, evident to everyone except me," he noted, leaning his head back on the hard wall. "She said it's obvious in the way that I…that I look at you. Um, and the little things—like the cinnamon in the coffee pot—everyone hates that, Paige. I do it for you. And the fact that there's nothing I wouldn't do to protect you and Ralph. I know I tell you that it's based on logical reasoning and calculations, but truthfully, when you're in danger, I don't think about that. I just know that I need you to protect you." He exhaled slowly and shook his head against the metal. "God, I can't tell you the truth about anything, can I? I'm sorry. You deserve better, Paige."

"I don't want better," she said quietly, finally finding her voice. "What I want hasn't changed, Walter. It's never changed."

Paige had been so weighed down by the truth that she'd gotten used to the heaviness, and had stopped noticing it until it was gone. The words were out, and she could breathe again for the first time in too long.

"I don't need you to say it. I don't need you to say anything," she assured him, knowing that the team would be looking for them soon but reluctant for the moment to end. "But I do need to know if we're heading somewhere, however slowly, or…"

"We are," Walter interrupted, not really wanting to hear the second option. "Or at least I am. If you are?"

The liaison couldn't suppress the ridiculous grin that reached her face, even when it felt like her skin might crack. "I am," she answered without hesitation. "So get back safely, alright?"

* * *

Paige shut her laptop as the sound of engines died out and four geniuses and one government agent filed into the garage.

"I am starving," Toby complained loudly. "If that mission ran any longer I was leaving to get a burger."

Happy rolled her eyes. "It's terrifying that you're trusted with national security."

He placed his hand over his heart in a gesture of mock offense. "Genius must be fed," he said earnestly before disappearing into the kitchen, the mechanic behind him.

When the rest were out of earshot, Walter walked wordlessly behind Paige's desk, taking her arm and leading her out the back entrance.

"Hey," she greeted as he shut the door behind him, but her words were drowned out as Walter crashed his lips hard against hers. Her breath hitched as she hit the side of the building, his hands firm around her waist and hers tangled up in his hair. She'd been pretty knocked out by their first kiss, but somehow this one was so much better.

"Wow," she laughed breathlessly as he pulled back, his arms stretched out on either side of her and his palms resting against the wall. "It's good to see you too."

"Sorry," Walter said, even though he didn't sound sorry and he certainly didn't need to be. "I had to do it before I talked myself out of it."

"I think we should do less talking," Paige mumbled as she hooked her arms around his neck and drew him into another kiss. The feeling of his fingers on her back and the heat of his body on hers was mind-blowing, but even through her haze she knew it was only a matter of time before the others caught them. "I have to pick up Ralph," she said when they broke apart. "We could all go to dinner, if you wanted."

Walter's crooked smile was making it much harder to catch her breath.

"Unless you have somewhere else to be," she teased, raising her eyebrow.

"No," he smirked, tightening his grip around her. "Not this time."

* * *

"Huh. Looks like we missed something," Toby whispered as he looked over the roof ledge. "I told you they were radio silent for way too long."

"Who cares how it happened? We won." Happy offered her hand for a high five, which the shrink gladly accepted. "And Walter can't give us crap for our relationship. I mean, he still will, probably, but we've got leverage now."

Toby smiled at his girlfriend and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, pulling her in close to him. He kissed the top of her head before murmuring, "It's a good thing I'm around to make your life easier, right?"

"You jerk!" Happy laughed, tearing back and punching him in the arm. "I knew you were listening to my conversation with Walter!"

"You make a very good psychiatrist," he insisted, snickering as she hit him again for good measure before resuming her spot against his chest. Toby's voice grew more serious as he noted, "You were right, though. I don't care if you say it, Hap. I'm just honored to be part of your life."

"So corny." The mechanic wrapped her arms around his waist until there was no distance between them and she could hear the comforting sound of his heartbeat. "Who knows, doc?" she said as they stared at the skyline, a small smile breaking through. "Anything's possible."


End file.
